THE leader and co-founder of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, Alan ‘Howlin’ Laud Hope, who once served as Mayor of Ashburton, will contest the Makerfield by-election.

The Official Monster Raving Loony Party made the announcement that its ‘glorious leader’ will stand against Andy Burnham in the forthcoming by-election.

In a statement posted to its Facebook page, the party said: ‘We can confirm that our glorious leader Alan "Howlin" Laud Hope with selected agents will be standing against Andy Burnham in the forthcoming election in Makerfield.

‘We can also confirm that there is no intention to launch a leadership bid to replace our leader.

‘We can also confirm that we will be making every effort to win this seat and will be throwing everything at it’.

Hope was the first-ever Monster Raving Loony Party candidate to be elected to public office, when he was elected to Ashburton Town Council in 1987.

Alan Hope with Screaming Lord Sutch and supporters in Ashburton during the 1980s. (Local Library)

He subsequently became the Mayor of Ashburton in 1998.

Hope's pub in Ashburton, The Golden Lion, was the party’s headquarters and conference centre from 1984 until 2000, after which he sold the property and moved to Hampshire.

Hope founded the party alongside Screaming Lord Sutch, a 1960s pop-star, in a Devon pub in the early 1980s.

As of Tuesday, May 19, three other official candidates have thrown their respective hats into the Makerfield by-election ring.

The three candidates are: Andy Burnham (Labour Party), Robert Kenyon (Reform UK) and Rebecca Shepherd (Restore Britain).